WTAM Local News

Testing continues in the effort to crack cold rape cases

Columbus (AP) - The Ohio Attorney General's office says it has received 5,523 previously untested rape kits as it searches for DNA matches that could help solve sexual assaults.

The office said Tuesday it has completed testing of nearly half of them, leading to 886 hits in the state's DNA database. The new kits came from 121 law enforcement agencies in the state.

Attorney General Mike Dewine announced the testing initiative in December 2011. The office offered DNA testing to any law enforcement agency with untested rape kits in which a crime was believed to have been committed. Many of the kits submitted for testing are between 10 and 20 years old.

In Cuyahoga County in northeast Ohio, prosecutors and investigators have generated 76 indictments as a result of the testing initiative.